Saturday, 28 May 2011

Yup, He’s A Fruitcake, All Right….

A vandal who scrawled graffiti on some of York’s most historic landmarks has been jailed for the second time.

But this is no spotty teenage yoof in a hoodie; this is a 31 year old man, albeit one with ‘issues’:

They included a cross with Blythe’s initials inside and the words “crucified martyr”“patch” and “monsoon” on York Crown Court; “blythdon”“decraved, depraved”“mind farmed”“robbed” and “it’s my life” among others on Clifford’s Tower; and “google blythdon bent cops” on the Statue of Constantine, outside York Minster.

Hmmm….

Blythe’s solicitor Andrew Craven said Blythe acted as he did because he held a particular “view”.

He said: “It is not, obviously, a mainstream viewpoint, but it is deeply held by him. He believes sincerely he is doing this for the benefit of what can only be described as society in general.”

And those views are..?

Last August, Nicholas Darwin, representing Blythe said his client was convinced cancer was the result of babies receiving brain implants.

Ah.

Blythe denies that he has mental health issues, but the district judge heard York mental health team were concerned he had not been assessed on a psychiatric basis before being interviewed by police earlier this year.

I can save them the time. He’s clearly a loon. Why doesn’t he just get a blog or Twitter account, like everyone else?

And what good is locking him up going to do? Other than take up a place that could be used by someone who has committed a violent crime? Far better to force him to remove his daubings, surely?

There are two things which graffitists don't like. One is being caught, the second is having to remove their hard work. For those of us arranging the latter it's much more enjoyable if we get them to use cleanup materials which we know very well won't remove what they're scrubbing at. Keeps them busy and us entertained for hours.